Black Box Awards, 7th observation.

The Black Box Awards.

Every year since its inception, the Nova theater department has had an awards ceremony called the Black box awards.
This ceremony is a night where the theater department gets together and passes a few different types of awards to the students in the program. Best Actor, Best Actress, Freshman awards are just a few of the distinctions passed out on that night. There are also Paper Plate awards that are more creative. the students have a choice of paying a dollar per paper plate and draw their own award to display for someone else in a designated spot at the Black box.
There is a committee that decides all the entertainment that will be performed over the course of the evening. They also decide other things such as catering, and how much the tickets will cost for the participants. Lauren Butler, a senior psychology and theater major who will be attending the graduate school at UCF is the committee head, her co-chair, Jon Sanz is a theater soon to be musical theater major at Nova.
The teachers and faculty of the department nominate and eventually decide the winners of each award. This is a special night to be recognized in the department for the good work that has been done in the year.

A few possible nominees could be Lauren Butler for her performance in The Importance of Being Earnest, Alex Glamyan for his role in The Importance of Being Earnest, Nora Yessayan in Stop Kiss.
The ceremony takes place on the first floor of the Performance and Visual Arts building in the Black Box theater.

Grant Auditions

Observations



Every year there are auditions available for the students to have a chance of getting into productions. But there are another type of auditions that give the students a chance to earn up to 3000 dollars in scholarship money.
The audition dates span over a couple months and each student has a choice of when the would like to perform for a few faculty in the area they are majoring or wish to major in. During the auditions themselves the students have to present something that goes with their major such as two contrasting monologues for acting or a dance solo for the dance majors.
After the performance the student is then interviewed by the faculty members who want to find out if they are worth the money being given to them.
The process the acting students generally go through to get ready for the auditions are as follows-
Signing up for a date on the Nova website
finding two monologues of a contrasting nature that best represent themselves as an actor.
Practicing the pieces and even selecting a third monologue in case the faculty asks for another.
Getting a good nights sleep before the audition date.
The performance.

These auditions are a great opportunity for the theater students, giving them a chance to practice the all important audition that every aspiring actor has to go through.

Warm ups

How an actor prepares for the stage

Actors have many different methods for preparing to get on stage and perform. Before the 15 minute call, the actors need to prepare their voices for the stresses of projecting their voices and possible dance movements.
A couple ways the actor prepares:
- Vocal Warmups
- Stretching
- Face movement
- Drinking Tea with honey
In high school at Coral Glades, we would gather in a circle about 20 minutes before open and do a cheer and dance around. This would loosen us up and prepare the cast for a lively show.

My interview with Professor G

I recently interviewed a teacher with in the fine arts department here at Nova. Because I have not yet received his preferences on whether I can refer to him by name I will instead write Professor G as the pseudonym.
Professor G was sucked into theater at a young age while in middle school. Later he was cast in the rock opera Tommy in his senior year. This even he told me was the thing that truly made him want to pursue a degree in the theater.
He later became more interested in the design aspect of theater and got his Masters of fine arts in stage design at the University of Hawaii Minoa.



A movie version of the Broadway play Tommy.

Being a Theater Major

Observation #3


Being a Theater Major

Its a strange thing with theater that once you become involved you either get completely sucked in or you immediately know its not your cup of tea. It is an exciting feeling to know that all the work you are putting into a show will eventually be seen by hundreds of people. To be in theater for a long time means to love theater and it is very hard to lose that connection once you are there an experiencing everything theater has to offer.
I have spoken to a few students within the theater program who started in other majors but once they started to get more involved with the shows here they decided to change their majors to Theater.
Edward Marks, a junior majoring in English has been participating in plays since his freshman year. He will be props manager on the next musical Ruthless and will be playing second detective in Stop Kiss. Recently he told me that he is thinking about switching his major to something in the Theater arts and has found that being an English major isn't letting him fulfill his love for the stage.
“I think that I could be better in theater than continue with my English major any further” said Marks when I was questioning him.
Other students however couldn't handle all the commitments of being a Theater major and being in other groups and programs. Elizabeth (last name removed) had been a theater major for a couple years but eventually decided that it wasn't for here. She became a residents assistant and could not keep up with the shows and still be as involved in the sorority she was in.
Theater is a high paced and even higher stress environment to be in. Every now and then you will find that you want to explode from everything piling up. It takes a unique type of person to want to be fully immersed in this world and enjoy performing in front of hundreds of strangers. For the people who find themselves sucked in its life that they cannot do with out. Being away from theater for too long makes you miss it even more, whether you were on stage or behind the scenes. It is a universal family that all loves doing the same thing, entertaining.

Theater at Nova

For my project this semester I am choosing to observe the Theater department here at Nova Southeastern University. This is a great community with many different opportunities for me to study and observe. I am interested in studying this subculture because I have considered majoring in theater and would like to gain as much knowledge into the theater degree here as possible.
This program will be easy to study since not only do I obviously go to Nova I know many students within the major who would be very happy to answer my questions and allow me to shadow them on some of the events that take place in the department. Besides knowing people in the program, there are many events that go on during the year, especially during this semester. There are two plays coming up, one currently in the rehearsal process called Ruthless, a musical. Attending a few rehearsals will help me get a feel for how Nova prepares for its shows in the important process.
The university has an archive of past shows and it will be nice to see past productions that they have put on. Nova also has a professional theater company located in the Black Box theater. They frequently put on shows and offer many opportunities for the theater majors to get involved and add to their resumes. The teachers here are also very helpful and are glad to offer help and information about the program.
The students in the theater program are close friends and shouldn't prove to be hesitant to help me with my project. It shouldn't be hard to get all the information I need to complete my observations and project.